September 2015

Thursday, September 24, 2015

For starters, let me just say that this is a very difficult (and personal) post to write. Before I get to the present state of affairs that prompted it, I need to go backwards to drudge through some of my autobiography that has played a formative role in my own jiu jitsu journey. Back in 1995 I was hit and run by a car while riding a bicycle. It left me pretty wrecked (pun intended). By the time 1996 rolled around my neck was in bad shape, so I had a single level cervical fusion--which involved a bone graft from my hip and a titanium plate and screws being "installed" in my neck. While the surgery fixed some of my ailments, it left me in chronic pain and discomfort--which have persisted to this day.

This chronic pain has been a constant hurdle I have had to deal with throughout my slow progression through the ranks. At each new school, I would have to explain the situation with my neck so that people knew that while choking me was fine, cranking on my neck was especially uncomfortable and dangerous. Most training partners have been willing to oblige (although the occasional partner may have forgotten in the heat of the roll and several opponents in tournaments didn't know about my limitation and hence tugged and torqued harder on my neck than was safe). But over the years, I pushed through the pain and kept trying to progress. It hasn't been easy or comfortable and it times it seemed I should just throw in the towel. But I persisted out of a love for the gentle art that was greater than the daily discomfort.

Indeed, I have convinced myself that the mobility workouts, the rolling, the stretching, and the other aspects of the art that helped keep my neck loose and limber were actually helping me. Maybe they were or maybe I was just fooling myself. But yesterday when I got to the neurologist, I had a day of reckoning that was twenty years in the making. Having had an MRI on Tuesday, when she walked into the room, my neurologist informed me that the results were "very bad." Not only would injections not be of any use to me--which was my hope going in--but she thought more surgery was my only viable solution. Within twenty minutes, I had a neurosurgeon in the room going over my MRI with me.

Every disc in my neck has moderate to severe damage and I have severe narrowing and impingement in several places. Worse still, because the vertebrate in my neck are so close together in several places and so arthritic, I am not even a candidate for disc replacement. More cervical fusion is my only option. Given my chronic pain, the severity of the degeneration in nearly all my discs, and the worsening dis-coordination in my hands, I am going to have to have a multi-level fusion at C5/6 and C6/7 in late November (2015). Given that I am already fused at C4/5, this is far from ideal. Worse still, there is a good chance that I will need to have C3/4 fused at a later date.

I say all this because it means that my days of live rolling are likely through. After nearly ten years of trying to inch my way slowly through the ranks--while bouncing around from FL to PA to CA to NC to PA and now to SC (and training all over the country and the world)--my journey is going to have to take a pretty radical shift if I am to stay involved in jiu jitsu. As someone who dreamed of getting a black belt one day, this has been a very hard few days. For now I am going to be relegated to teaching others rather than working on my own game (which is not usually the job of a purple belt). Who knows, I may end up having to give it up altogether--which would be a real shame as it has been a source of inspiration for me for the past ten years.

Since my future in the gentle art is unclear, I wanted to take this chance to thank all of the wonderful friends, training partners, and instructors who have shepherded me along during my own journey as I tried to make my way. While I humbly like to think I picked up techniques and principles easier than others, finding the right mindset was more challenging for me than most. So, I appreciate the patience that has been bestowed upon me by those who were closest to me during my journey.

As I give up what Scott Devine has called the "pure joy of the roll" I hope that I can learn to find as much joy in helping others improve their own rolls. I have to admit, I am doubtful on this front. But as an educator by training, I sincerely hope I can make this transition. For I am not ready for my own jiu jitsu journey to come to an end--even if it has to change its direction and orientation.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Sorry things have been slow here at The Jiu Jitsu Journey. It's been the start of my semester and I am teaching two new classes. Plus, I had a keynote address to prepare for and a chapter to finish. Now that things have settled down a bit, I wanted to post something about a technique I had forgotten about even though it is pretty simple and effective. I started thinking about it again after visiting Buffalo Jiu-Jitsu Academy (NY) while attending a recent conference. I had the pleasure of rolling with two really tough students at the gym--which is a good reason to train whenever you travel (but that is a topic for a later post!).

One of the students was a Russian immigrant who has been training for eight years or so. As a result, he was mat savvy. I suspect I outweighed him by forty or fifty pounds. So, I was surprised he was willing to let me pass his guard and take top side control--which is one of my favorite places to be. Whether I had my trailing arm hooked under his far side leg or not, he was amazingly adept at using his far side hand and his legs to get my trailing arm in an upside down crucifix. He would then make sure that my front side arm was trapped under his head (which is where I wanted it anyway!). Then, he would stuff my head between his legs to secure an upside down triangle. Sometimes he would get the choke and sometimes he would focus on my front side arm--which was susceptible to a straight arm lock, a shoulder lock, and a wrist lock.

It was clear he had spent a lot of time perfecting this position. It was also equally clear I hadn't spent nearly enough time trying to learn how to stay out of it and prevent it before getting stuck! Given that it's an offensive technique to be used from bottom side control, I returned home on a mission to add the technique to my arsenal. After showing the technique to several of my black belt instructors, they collectively agreed to work on it with me.

So, to supplement our training, I went lurking around the interwebs for some instructional that might prove useful as I continue my quest to get more effective at using the technique. As always, Youtube delivered! So, below you will find several people showing the technique (each with a focus on different details of the position). While most of these videos focus on finishing the upside down triangle (or the reverse inverted triangle, if you prefer), I think attacking your O's front side arm may be just as viable. That said, watch, learn, and go train!

p.s. The video below by Braulio actually shows the reverse triangle from open guard. But since it's really slick and seems relevant to the technique de jour, I included it!

Sunday, September 06, 2015

Chris Haueter is one of the original "dirty dozen"--that is, one of the first twelve Americans to receive a black belt in jiu jitsu. He also happens to be a renowned instructor with a hilarious sense of humor. In the video below--which is making the rounds around the interwebs--Haueter takes some time out at a recent camp to drop some knowledge on the students (along with a bunch of f-bombs). His lecture ranges over a number of interesting topics (watch the whole video for details), but the two things he said that resonated most with me were the following:

His definition of jiu jitsu

“The history of what we do right now is basically Japanese origin, Brazilian modified, American and Russian influenced grappling. It’s not like Helio, Carlos, Carlson, and George suddenly made up this whole jiu jitsu game.”

Hauter’s Golden Rules of Grappling

Rule 1: Be the person on top.

Rule 2: When on top, stay on top.

Rule 3: When on bottom, have an impassable guard.

Rule 4: Never forget Rule 1 (avoid the seduction of the bottom guard)

If you want to better understand why he thinks are the golden rules, watch the video below! It is well worth your time!

{Hello all! I am Daniel S. Goldberg, and I am an assistant professor in The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. I'm trained as an attorney, an historian of medicine, and a bioethicist. As to BJJ, I'm currently a green belt at East Carolina Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a school affiliated with Robson Moura Nations United. I've been training for just over 2 years. - See more at: http://philosophycommons.typepad.com/the_grumpy_grappler/page/2/#sthash.VK2eCJg1.dpuf

{Hello all! I am Daniel S. Goldberg, and I am an assistant professor in The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. I'm trained as an attorney, an historian of medicine, and a bioethicist. As to BJJ, I'm currently a green belt at East Carolina Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a school affiliated with Robson Moura Nations United. I've been training for just over 2 years. - See more at: http://philosophycommons.typepad.com/the_grumpy_grappler/page/2/#sthash.VK2eCJg1.dpuf

{Hello all! I am Daniel S. Goldberg, and I am an assistant professor in The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. I'm trained as an attorney, an historian of medicine, and a bioethicist. As to BJJ, I'm currently a green belt at East Carolina Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a school affiliated with Robson Moura Nations United. I've been training for just over{Hello all! I am Daniel S. Goldberg, and I am an assistant professor in The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. I'm trained as an attorney, an historian of medicine, and a bioethicist. As to BJJ, I'm currently a blue belt at East Carolina Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a school affiliated with Robson Moura Nations United. I've been training for just over 2 years. I look forward to posting more in the weeks and months ahead!}

{Hello all! I am Daniel S. Goldberg, and I am an Assistant Professor in The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University. I'm trained as an attorney, an historian of medicine, and a bioethicist. As to BJJ, I'm currently a blue belt at East Carolina Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, a school affiliated with Robson Moura Nations United. I've been training for just over 2 years, and look forward to posting more in the weeks and months ahead}.

I am a teacher by temperament, training, and profession, and of one thing I am certain: good students make good teachers, and vice-versa. This is true all of the time. I learn constantly from my students, even as I teach them. Obviously, as to jiujitsu, there is no end to the learning. As I continue to train, one lesson I have really begun to internalize is the importance and value of training with people at all different ranks and skill levels. I have heard stories of practitioners who refuse to train with people of a certain level. There are rationales for such choices, and sometimes respect and deference alone merit certain norms in many academies (i.e., that a lower belt should not ask a black belt to roll, but should rather wait to be invited to do so).

It is not for me to dictate to anyone, let alone people who have been training for many years, with whom they should train. But I have really found a lot of value in training with people of different ranks, and I thought that I’d explain why.